Final Word from Wednesday, April 25, 2012
It should be a breeze for Miroslav Kalousek to win his slander case against Radim Jančura, who told Česká pozice that Kalousek is the richest person in the country and probably pocketed a few billion crowns. There's no way Kalousek is the richest Czech. As lawyer Marián Čalfa said on the radio a few years ago, a person can't get really rich working with his head; you have to own assets to do it. Kalousek might have a few billion stashed away in Liechtenstein, but that's chicken feed compared to the mountains of physical assets stolen over the years. Even a second-tier, washed-up would-be oligarch like Martin Roman is richer than Kalousek. Still, Kalousek should be careful tangling with Jančura. When Jančura declared publicly in 2010 that he could prove that Roman was on both sides of billions of crowns in deals at ČEZ and Czech Railways, Roman was out on his ear as CEO of ČEZ within about a year.
Glossary of difficult words
a breeze - a thing that is easy to do or accomplish;
to stash away - to store something safely and secretly in a specified place;
chicken feed - an insignificant amount of money;
washed-up - no longer effective or successful;
to tangle with someone - to become involved in a conflict or clash with;
to be out on one's ear - to be dismissed or ejected in disgrace or shame.